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It is very evident that Mattel Design and or the vendor re-engineered the strap situation. They were clearly meant to clip the biceps and the quads. I think Mattel sometimes doesn't understand the customer base, the character, or both when they try to remind folks that the name of the game in this line is buck reuse based on the vintage line. The reasoning is very flawed.

Ram Man is/was not buck reuse.
The Rock Warriors are not buck reuse (even the satellite lasers)
Several of the Snake Men are not buck reuse.
Many of the Horde if not all are not buck reuse.
Sorceress was not buck reuse.

By that logic, all the PoP girls should have identical faces (shudder).

Look at the clasps used to clip the rocks to the Rock Warriors. they couldn't afford to tool the 4H ones, but they could afford to tool different ones? It makes no sense. It was a Design fail plain and simple. The Four Horsemen went out of their way to make it right, and Mattel didn't properly translate it. The 4H ones looked like clips, too. Once the rock pieces come off, you'd lose the bands anyway, so I don't know how fans would have felt if the prototypes remained unchanged. The outcome appears the same. I wish Mattel didn't sabotage the 4H good-faith effort.

That said, it's thankfull an easy fix. Yes they used Trap Jaw legs and arms, but to play devil's advocate, it's admittedly one of the few times it actually works. They are nicer than the boots they originally had (though personally I would have tooled them new so they could be re-used on Squeeeze). That was a Horsemen decision based on allowed budget. I am OK with this one particular choice. I get folks not OK with this choice. Like the Horde armbands, they can be molded later, thankfully.

Pack the bands in with Granita, the 2015 $30 MOTUC figure ;-)

Maybe the clips as bands on Stonedar's legs could not be engineered in that manner?

"Mattel's policy of things being seen as a failure if they don't sell out in minutes still annoys the hell out of me."  .org Member paulioscorchio

Enjoy my articles on action figures, Christianity, and much more on Infobarrel.

I will say for deco, I wish Stonedar has the royal blue from the cross sell art on his armor and helmet, just to differentiate him from Rokkon more, but a minor quibble. I just showed my older brother these toys since he had Rokkon as a kid, and now he WANTS them. So one will be a birthday present now, since it's in August :-)

I'm surprised at how many people are actually upset that Granita isn't included in this set. It makes sense, since Filmation was not included in the original roadmap and these two have been planned as this years exclusive from the beginning, so she would have had to have been added and it most likely was already budgeted out for only the two of them. I also can't help but think if she were included we would be hearing a lot of backlash regarding price and from the fans who only want Granita and are "forced" to buy two figures they don't want. Just another case of "darned if you do, darned if you don't".

Also, including her in this set would have meant another $30, but putting her in a sub it's possible she will only be $25 because her tooling cost could be off set by figures with lower amount of tooling like Icer, Batros, Shakoti, and Sea Hawk.

I'm surprised at how many people are actually upset that Granita isn't included in this set. It makes sense, since Filmation was not included in the original roadmap and these two have been planned as this years exclusive from the beginning ....

That's like saying they planned LOST since the beginning.

Preternia - When you tryna get dem J's and turn up with the squad and but yo ratchet side deek throwin mad shade.

Yes, I am guessing the clip-on rock parts are bigger than the prototypes to actually make the rock "formation" work. Still, they look too big when clipped onto the figures while standing up.

Yeah. Since Classics figures have more realistic proportions than the vintage figures, their arms and legs aren't the same length (Rokkon and Stonedar's arms don't reach the ground), so an extra piece is needed.

Rokkon looks fabulous in those pictures but Stonedar lacks some color. The red on his thighs i totally missing. It seems he has some red spread into his boots but for now packaged like that his color scheme is a bit boring, if you ask me.

I like both their faces and it looks as if they can turn their heads, i was afraid because of their rock attachments they won΄t be able to that but Rokkon seems to do so with out any trouble

Yeah. Since Classics figures have more realistic proportions than the vintage figures, their arms and legs aren't the same length (Rokkon and Stonedar's arms don't reach the ground), so an extra piece is needed.

Since they had to make another piece for the front, why not just make THAT part larger, and retain the Prototype proportions for the arms?

Yeah. Since Classics figures have more realistic proportions than the vintage figures, their arms and legs aren't the same length (Rokkon and Stonedar's arms don't reach the ground), so an extra piece is needed.

I'm sorry, but... since I know what pieces are what, all I can see are Stonedar and Rokkon just kind of face planted Into the rock or something.

I can't really understand wht people are not bothered about the goofyness of those figures. they're good but they could have been great. c'mon, those stones attachments are way too big and they ruin two of my favourte figures in the vintage line. considering that I dont care about the action features in this line (we know how they managed them till now and im pretty happy with the swappable heads and sorta to kinda remind the feature of the 80s) could they just make those pieces smaller and still let them trasnsform in the comet from (of course without the action figure inside as a base)? poor choices....youll se when you get them in your hands.

and why rokkon is so perfect and so vintage looking while stonedar, thata had one of the most beautiful facecsulpt in the vintageline, is now something totally far from the 80s counterpart?

I agree. There's no way that these were planned for the 2013 SDCC exclusive from the beginning. I believe this must have been a rather recent decision based on poor sub sales, which is supposed to help get as many vintage character out as possible before the line ends. Anyhow, it's just a feeling I have. I have no evidence or source to support this theory.
I do find it interesting thou that this time there's no difference between the SDCC and Matty version...

They might have been on the roadmap for 2013, but I don't think they were planned for SDCC

I agree. There's no way that these were planned for the 2013 SDCC exclusive from the beginning. I believe this must have been a rather recent decision based on poor sub sales, which is supposed to help get as many vintage character out as possible before the line ends. Anyhow, it's just a feeling I have. I have no evidence or source to support this theory.
I do find it interesting thou that this time there's no difference between the SDCC and Matty version...

They might have been on the roadmap for 2013, but I don't think they were planned for SDCC

You are right and this fact actually supports my theory instead of contradicting it
The actual 2010 SDCC exclusive that was on the original road map was the Adam/Orko 2-pak, of which the SDCC version included a different Orko figure.
The Mo-Larr/Skeletor pak was a short-term decision based on their collaboration with Robot Chicken. Scott made it very clear that the Mo-Larr/Skeletor pak did not take away anything from the MOTUC tooling budget and did not use up one of the figure slots. It was a "spontaneous" addition to the original road map